Chadwick Tromp laced a walk-off RBI single in the 11th inning on Friday to propel the Atlanta Braves to a 5-4 victory over the visiting Washington Nationals.
After Washington reliever Paxton Schultz (0-2) retired the first two batters of the 11th, Tromp drove in his second run for the Braves, who won their major-league best 36th game in the opener of a three-game series.
Tyler Kinley (4-2) tossed a perfect 11th for Atlanta. Starter Bryce Elder pitched six strong innings, allowing one run on five hits, striking out four and walking one.
Richard Lovelady threw a scoreless first as an opener for Washington. Miles Mikolas then delivered five scoreless innings for the Nationals, allowing three hits while striking out three. CJ Abrams homered and drove in three for the visitors, who dropped their fourth game in six tries.
In the top of the 10th, Dylan Lee walked Andres Chaparro to place runners on first and second before retiring Curtis Mead. Abrams then doubled in two runs to give the Nationals a 4-2 lead.
Tromp began the bottom of the frame with a single to drive in automatic runner Ha-Seong Kim. Mauricio Dubon then tied the game with a single to shallow left off Orlando Ribalta.
Two batters later, Ozzie Albies walked to load the bases with one out, but Ribalta retired Michael Harris II and Eli White to send the game to the 11th.
Washington struck first in the sixth, as Mead connected on his fifth home run of the season — a 404-foot leadoff shot to left-center.
Facing Mitchell Parker in the bottom of the seventh. Michael Harris II legged out an infield single and Riley worked a one-out walk before Dominic Smith’s RBI single knotted the score.
Kim then laid down a suicide squeeze bunt and scored Riley to give the Braves a 2-1 edge.
On his 31st pitch of the inning, Parker got Ronald Acuna Jr. to fly out and end the frame.
Robert Suarez took over in the eighth, yielding Abrams’ 11th homer of the year — a solo homer to right-center that tied the score at 2-all. It was Suarez’s first home run allowed this season.
Raisel Iglesias threw a perfect top of the ninth for Atlanta, then Washington’s Gus Varland worked around a one-out single by Riley to send the game to extra innings.
–Field Level Media
